The present invention relates to the field of lead generation and online advertising, and to a system and method for providing a complete online advertisement system for the World Wide Web and lead generation therefrom. Particularly, the present invention relates to the field of data transmission and to communication between a visitor to a web page and a backend system configured for use by, for example, service representatives and/or sales persons, facilitating lead generation and sales efforts. More particularly, this invention relates to banner advertisement display as well as the real-time data collection, validation, and delivery of leads generated via interactive banners all processed within the original web page on which the banner is displayed.
The Internet has become an advertisement media to reach globally populated users of the World Wide Web. A variety of web pages on the Internet now carry spaces set apart for the display of certain content not necessarily native to the site, and often provided (and sometimes hosted) by a third-party, such as, for example, a space housing an advertisement or content promoting a particular service on a site. Such spaces are often referred to as display spaces, and frequently contain an image or animation embedded in an area on the web page. Currently, the predominant form of advertising on the Internet is the banner advertisement.
Banner advertisements can be made up of virtually any item that can be displayed on a web page. A banner ad may include text or graphics, possibly animated, and is generally displayed on a fixed portion of a web page. Some examples include a static picture in the form of a .GIF or .JPG image, a movie, or as an interactive area where a user can play a game. Most web pages have specific areas dedicated to advertising banners although some web pages utilize floating or moving banners that can show up in virtually any area of the web page—even directly over the web page content itself.
Typically, the advertisements included in the web pages contain only a limited amount of information (e.g., a small paragraph, an icon, etc.). The advertisements in the context described herein refer to any call to action that requires data capture, and generally contain links to web sites that provide further detailed information. In certain arrangements, the advertisers pay the advertisements based on the number of visits directed to their web sites by the links of the advertisements. In certain embodiments, such advertisements can be provided by advertisers or by the web page itself.
The interaction of online advertising typically involves three parties:
User—this is the person viewing the web page that contains the display space or banner ad. The user is viewing the web page for the content of the web page itself and may or may not be interested in the banner advertisements that are displayed alongside the content. The user data collected is considered the “Lead” that the advertiser wants to collect.
Website—this is the host of the web page content and the banner advertisement. The web site produces content that the user is interested in viewing. Additionally, the website hosts banner advertisements primarily as a means of revenue paid to them by the advertiser or as a way of obtaining information for its own usage.
Advertiser—the advertiser is the person or company that has a product it wants to sell or an item it wants to publicize or a newsletter for which it wants the user to sign up. The advertiser may also simply be interested in obtaining user-supplied information for marketing or product development reasons. The advertiser may be a third party or may be the web page host itself. There are numerous other scenarios for advertisers but the ones listed are some of the typical scenarios. The banner advertisement is what the advertiser uses to attract the user's attention to the advertiser's product, item or newsletter.
One form of online lead generation is via the display of advertisements in the form of a banner ad. Traditionally, the user would click on the banner to either sign up for the item being advertised or to obtain additional information about the product or item displayed in the banner. Conventionally, upon clicking on the banner, either the user would be redirected to a new URL (the user would go from www.xyz.com to www.banner_site.com) and would no longer remain on the original web page they were viewing, or the banner would launch a pop-up a web page in a separate window and the user would need to view that new window. Thus, when an end user clicks on a display space or a banner ad on a web page, the end user terminal is connected to a server hosting the destination web content of the content provider for the space, and the server then enables an end user to view the content linked to the space at the user's terminal.
Currently, the effectiveness of most Internet advertisements is measured by their “click rate”, this is, the ratio of the number of times the advertisements are clicked on by Internet users to the number of times the advertisements are viewed. As is well known in the art, Internet advertisements generally include banners having a link to another web page or site such that, by clicking on an Internet advertisement, a user's browser is directed to the other web page or site that then displays information or material that is particularly relevant to the advertisement.
Often, however, the goal of the advertisement is to obtain contact information (or leads) for web site visitors who indicate that they are interested in the product being advertised. Lead generation is the process of collecting and delivering to an advertiser the user information that the user has entered, acknowledging the user's interest in a product or service of the advertiser or of the web host itself. Knowing such information enables the advertiser or the web host to replicate that success and begin to maximize their return on investment. In addition, it is important for the sales person receiving the lead to know exactly who is the web site visitor (or prospect) who responded to the advertisement. This allows the client to focus its marketing efforts on those most likely to purchase, leading to more cost-effective sales techniques.
In lead generation advertisements, the redirection of the user to a new web site or new window would then allow the user to follow-up on the advertisement for additional information or to sign up for the product/item. Thus, the data collection for generating this lead would occur on the advertiser's site when the user views more details and then enters his detailed information. The advertisers can the follow-up with this lead.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate the conventional, prior art user-website-advertiser interaction. The user visits a web page of interest and notices an advertisement in the form of a banner. FIG. 1A shows a web page with an advertisement displayed as a banner. The user clicks on the banner to sign up or view more information about the item being advertised. Once the user clicks on the banner, a new browser window is opened and the user is redirected to a new web page hosted by the advertiser or by the web host. FIG. 1B shows what occurs when a user clicks on the traditional ad banner, namely that the original context is lost and the user is taken to a new browser window and a new web site. FIG. 1B shows the new web page in a new window to which the user is redirected after the user clicks on the banner ad. As shown in FIG. 1B, the entire content of the original web page is covered, and the context of the original web page has now shifted entirely to the advertiser's site.
This type of approach has several negative ramifications for all the parties involved in online advertising interaction. The user is negatively affected with this traditional approach because his main focus and point of reference have been changed. Instead of continuing on that original web page of interest, the user now needs to look at a new web page that contains the advertisement information. In order to return to that original web page of interest, the user must close the new window or hit the browsers “Back” button and then re-orient his location of focus on his original web page. This affects the user's concentration and causes the user to take extras and time to return to his original web page and focus.
The website is negatively affected since the user has now left the original web site's page and is on a different window or web page—now, the user either may not return to the original web page or may return to the original web page but may lose interest in it, since he needs to re-orient himself back to the original web page. This causes the web site to have users spend less time on (or not return at all to) their web pages viewing more content or additional revenue generating banners (or other revenue sources for the site).
Additionally, since the user loses time and orientation, this type of interaction may stop users from clicking additional banners of interest, causing the web site to lose out on potential revenue and the advertiser to lose out on getting users to notice the items being advertised.
Further, the advertiser who is represented by the banner is negatively affected since the user who has gone from the original web page to the new window or web page may want to return to the original web page as quickly as possible, by closing the new window or hitting the browser's “Back” button as soon as possible to return to the original site. This means that the user is not giving the advertiser's web page his full concentration and time. Additionally, since many users already understand traditional banner interaction, they are hesitant to click the banner at all since they don't want to move to another web page or a new window, as their main point of interest is on the original web page.
Another limitation of traditional banner advertising occurs when the user has installed certain “pop-up blockers” or has his web browser security settings set to “High”. A high security setting in a web browser or “pop-up blocker” may prevent a new browser window from launching. This will prevent the advertiser's website from displaying when the user clicks on the banner. In this scenario, the user will not be given the chance to view the advertiser's website and the advertiser will not have the chance to collect a lead.
This may cause many users to quickly want to return back to their original web page of interest. In order for the user to return to their original web page, the user needs to close this new window and re-orient himself to the original context. The user has spent extra time and effort, the web site has possibly lost a user from returning, and the advertiser does not receive the full attention of the user.
More recently, a new type of banner advertisement has been developed that allows for the collection of data directly inside the banner through the use of an embedded form and/or buttons. This circumvents some of the negative aspects of traditional banners by allowing the user to remain on the current web page instead of being redirected elsewhere. However, this new type of banner does not account for seamless integration with the web site hosting this type of banner. For these banners, the web site needs to develop customized server-side programs to capture the data, process it, and then deliver the data to the advertiser or to the web host. This is a time-consuming and costly process.